Quarter of UK has had ‘ghostly encounter’

Eerily, 25 per cent of the UK adult population – or around 11m people - have experienced a ghost, according to research by spectre expert Professor Richard Wiseman.

It’s a statistic that will send a shiver down the spine of the nation, especially as paranormal experiences are on the increase.

In the 1950s, the figure was just seven per cent, rising to 14 per cent in the 1990s and 19 per cent in 2003.

Are the undead on the march?

Fear not, because Professor Wiseman, who doesn’t believe in ghosts, thinks that TV is to blame for the large number of wraiths and bumps in the night that are being reported.

Ghosts have never been so popular on television, with shows such as Most Haunted, Ghost Hunters and Famous And Frightened attracting large numbers of fans.

‘It's a surprisingly high figure, and it's interesting that the proportion of people who say they believe in ghosts has remained the same as it has been for many years, which is about a third,’ said Prof Wiseman, from the University of Hertfordshire.

‘My only thought is that, because there have been a lot of ghost shows on TV, people may just be more likely to attribute certain experiences, like hearing creaky floorboards, to ghosts. All these shows are feeding off the perception that these things actually exist and not looking at the psychological perspective.’

Professor Wiseman produced a ‘ghost map’ of Britain alongside his findings, which shows that the largest number of ghostly goings-on - experienced by up to 30 per cent of the population – were reported in Yorkshire and Humberside, the East Midlands and Wales.

London and the South East was the least spooked region, with just a fifth of the population claiming to have had a ghostly experience.